Monsters: A Bedford Spotlight Reader

by Andrew J. Hoffman

Monsters explores questions about the central concept of the Why do we create monsters? Are they animal, human, both, or neither? Which of our fears and desires do monsters embody? What can monsters tell us about our cultural and historical moments? How do we cope with the monsters that haunt our imaginations―and our societies? Readings by classic poets, contemporary fiction writers, pop culture critics, philosophers, psychologists, occultists, veterinarians, ethicists, historians, and others take up these questions and more. Questions and assignments for each selection provide a range of activities for students to write about vampires, werewolves, zombies, mermaids, serial killers, classic horror movie monsters, and more strange things that go bump in the night.
The Bedford Spotlight Reader Series is an exciting line of single-theme readers, each reflecting Bedford’s trademark care and quality. An editorial board of a dozen compositionists at schools with courses focusing on specific themes assists in the development of the series. Each reader collects thoughtfully chosen selections sufficient for an entire writing course―about 35 pieces―to allow instructors to provide carefully developed, high-quality instruction at an affordable price. Bedford Spotlight Readers are designed to help students from all majors make sustained inquiries from multiple perspectives, opening up topics such as borders, food, gender, happiness, humor, language, music, science and technology, subcultures, and sustainability, to critical analysis. The readers are flexibly arranged in thematic chapters, with each chapter focusing in depth on a different facet of the central topic. Instructor support at macmillanlearning.com includes sample syllabi and additional teaching resources.

Genres: School, Teaching, Vampires, Horror

368 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2015

Reviews

[Josh]

A good bunch of essays and excerpts that may or may not be a good required text for a writing class. Some of my students loved it, some of them express disinterest in the whole topic, and the essays and excerpts themselves cover a sort of wide range of reading skills. Do your students know what the Oedipal conflict is? If not, maybe you have to skip a couple readings or you will be stuck explaining it to them. I hope you're an expert! The final unit on serial killers and mass murderers is pretty engaging for all of my students.

I also found it pretty thought-provoking. I hope that Bedford makes more spotlight readers like this about unusual and catchy topics. Maybe one about superheroes?

[M · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this for my english class. Interesting book but I wish it was more up to date.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the summer of horror metaphors & monsters & i love it

[Mert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting variety of articles

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a reader, this is pretty great, but I do wish that it had more intellectually engaging content. This is not to say that what is in this reader is not intellectually written, but aspects of these five sections occasionally grew repetitive, especially given the predominately Western focus in the reader. This said, there are some fantastically interesting pieces here regarding vampires, zombies, werewolves, and serial killers. Monsters, as Hoffman has arranged it, is an introduction to how complex monsters themselves are. Monsters are representatives of the Other, of ourselves, of our fears. Hoffman's selections, ranging from Hitler, Homer, Klosterman, and Shelley, capture a diverse perspective of what monster studies can be and implicitly how educators may draw upon the rich history of monsters to provide students with readings that more directly connects to their immediate interests.

[Kara Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an informative book on why we crave and create monsters. Coming from the perspectives of literature researchers, short stories and excerpts from longer works were assessed, as well as articles and serial killers or real monsters, if you will. Learning the backstories of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Godzilla enlightened me to more cathartic works than I realized existed. I recommend this book for anyone who is curious about why monsters exist in literature and television, and why these monsters keep coming back to entertain us or frighten us.

[Megan RFA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Individually, these essays and excerpts were fine, and sometimes even good, but together, they became repetitive. I was looking for readings to assign my college freshman, and found a few gems, but I would not use this entire collection as a course reader (as the manufacturer suggests). Beating a dead horse.

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm teaching a dual enrollment English class next year and found the essays from this reader really useful. I have plenty of the essays sticky noted and plan to use them in conjunction with our novel study of Frankenstein over the semester. Most essays were on the shorter side (3-8 pages).

[T.J. Tranchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used this book for my English 102 class. The students enjoyed seeing that monsters could be a legitimate field of study.

[Stephen J. Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

As is the case with any anthology or collection, there are ups and downs here, but I enjoy the subject matter very much and a lot of these essays are either fun, interesting, or both.

[Lili · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read some stories for English 1102 🤪

[Calla Massari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read, considering it was for a summer writing class—fun to read about monsters instead of just bland essays. Nice variety of excerpts and analyses in here!